


Just A Band

by OptimisticEmotion



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action, Chasing The Dream, Conspiracy, Lifetime Drama, Living Fugaku, Living Mikoto, M/M, Modern AU, Murder Mystery, Rock Band, Romance, Uchiha Hunting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-10-25 23:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10774509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OptimisticEmotion/pseuds/OptimisticEmotion
Summary: The Uchiha use to be a very large family close to four hundred in numbers. However with a deadly curse seeming to have fallen upon the family name, Sasuke's family have now dwindled to six; himself, his brother, his parents, and his two estranged uncles whom are now training the boys to take on their positions as heads of the family. If only terrible accidents would stop happening around them.Naruto Uzumaki has been jumping from job to job for a few years now. He had just broken off a three year engagement with his once loving partner Hyuuga Hinata and moved back in with his adoptive father Iruka. When he gets fired because some rich jackass decided to be a Teme, and then threatens to have Naruto black listed, Naruto decides it's time to try for his dream. To become a Rock Star. Time to call in the troops and start the band back up!Sasuke and Naruto are from two different genre's of life, but watch as this accidental romance blends Sasuke's life of action and murder mystery with Naruto's Family friendly lifetime drama of chasing a dream





	1. Atypical Meet Cute

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how far I will actually take this, but I'm currently rewatching Naruto from the start before getting into Boruto so of course a Fanfic got stuck in my head.

Chapter One:

Atypical Meet Cute

_Sasuke was five years old and laying awake in his bed. He was asleep up until a minute ago when he heard someone walking by his room. His older brother Itachi was a feather light sleeper, and Sasuke wanted to be like that. No one could sneak up on his big brother after all. So Sasuke was trying to train himself to wake up to every little thing, just like Itachi. However, due to his bedroom's thick walls, and silent back yard, the only way to truly test himself on the matter was to leave his door open and let the sound of the rest of the house carry into his room._

_Normally everyone would be dead asleep and Sasuke's test would be pretty much pointless, but just a minute ago Sasuke's father, Fugaku Uchiha, and his older brother had just walked by. Sasuke woke up to them coming up to his door and was fully awake by the time they walked by._

_A hushed tone was the first thing Sasuke heard. It was his father's deep toned voice steeped in pride as he looked to Itachi and chuckled, “That's my boy.”_

_They didn't stop, they didn't slow down, and before anything else was said, they were already out of Sasuke's hearing range. The damage was done of course and Sasuke was having a hell of a time trying to fall back asleep. The words were just bouncing around in his head like the bouncy balls that he got from school yesterday. They hit one side of his brain and flew to slam on the other side to go back and forth._

_It wasn't like Itachi didn't deserve praise, and it wasn't like Sasuke never heard his father say those words to his older brother before. It was just that, Sasuke had never heard those words said to him. That's what had Sasuke laying awake; his brain couldn't help but pretend those words were being said to him. He couldn't help but try to think about whatever Itachi had just done to make his father so proud and how Sasuke might replicate it. Anything to hear his father say 'that's my boy', to him._

 

***

 

The restaurant was a high class place, the best money could find, with a waiting list a month long, much shorter if you had the right name, of course. There was a live orchestra playing in the back with speakers strategically placed all over to give the right feeling of being the right distance from the musicians to perfectly appreciate the music without it over whelming the table conversation. All the lights were the right amount of dim so that it wasn't a strain on the eyes to see or read the menu, but they were soft and made it easy to relax. From the food to the decor, this place reeked money.

Sasuke Uchiha sighed as he glared at the two empty place settings before him and then glared at his phone. He had been waiting for over an hour and the 'undercover' reporter at the table behind him had been writing in her notebook non-stop the entire time. While the youngest of the Uchiha didn't remember how many times he had checked his phone exactly, he was more then certain that Chi, reporter form the Daily Sound, best known for her hateful piece 'The Bell Tolls on the Uchiha's', had a tally in the corner of her page marking just how often the young bachelor pulled out the small device.

He closed his eyes for a moment to try and settle the irritation. Sasuke could all but see the headlines now, 'Highly Sought Bachelor Sasuke Uchiha Stood Up?' or maybe 'Money Won't Buy Romance for Uchiha' or something equally twisted. He wasn't even waiting on a date. Then again, it's not like anyone would really care what the truth was so long as it made a good story.

Sauske sighed again and pulled his phone back out. He tried to ignore the scratching of a pencil on paper making a short line, yet another tally mark. Instead, Sasuke focused on opening his messenger app and tried a different contact, Itachi.

 

SASUKE: Where are you right now?

 

ITACHI: With Kisame at the dinner, you?

 

SASUKE: Dinner?

 

ITACHI: Don't fret, it's the security team's celebratory dinner. Yagato is retiring and as I use to intern under Kisame, he figured I should join.

ITACHI: Why do you ask?

 

SASUKE: Father didn't show up.

 

ITACHI: He didn't leave you there alone, did he?

 

SASUKE: There's a Daily Sound reporter in the table next to me about to make a lot of money on a misleading article.

 

ITACHI: Got it. I can't leave here, but I can send Uncle Tobi. He has a reputation for making people wait, it shouldn't look out of place.

 

SASUKE: That would be appreciated.

 

ITACHI: And Sasuke,

ITACHI: I'm certain father had his reasons

 

SASUKE: Even you don't believe that. Don't expect me to.

 

ITACHI: True. I'll text mother.

 

SASUKE: Don't, she's even worse when it comes to making excuses for him.

 

ITACHI: Why, Little Brother, I believe you're catching on.

 

SASUKE: Fuck you.

 

ITACHI: Love you too, Sasuke. See you tomorrow.

 

With that, Sasuke put away his phone and called for a refill on his wine. His father would highly disapprove, after all only alcoholics drink a full glass of wine before their company arrives and no more than two glasses during the meal. Then again, Fugaku Uchiha wasn't there to rail on him, so why not, right?

After the waiter refilled his glass and turned to leave, a busboy with a full tray came through at the wrong time. To be perfectly fair, the waiter who filled Sasuke's glass was probably more at fault for stepping right into the busboy's way, but there was a heiracy when it came to the dinning staff and so when the two bumped into each other, and thus bumping into Sasuke, who was trying to sip at his now full glass of wine, which sloshed a bit, dribbling a bit on his shirt, it was the busboy whom was getting the blame.

“You!” Sasuke snapped at the guy. The busboy in question turned to look at Sasuke in apology and for a second Sasuke was about to blindly accept it. The guy was tall, like, damn. His eyes were possibly the most brilliant blue that had ever been put in eye form, popping dramatically against the slight tan of his skin, and with his hair so yellow and riddled with cowlicks, Sasuke could almost believe that he was addressing the son of Apollo himself.

His first thought was 'Damn!' and then his second thought was 'he's probably straight', and that lead to his third thought 'wasn't I pissed a second ago?'. With that, Sasuke returned to Earth enough to start on a rant.

“Do you know just how expensive that accident was?” He began, Chi was scribbling furiously in her notebook, looking excited as hell. “My shirt is now ruined and the wine itself wasn't exactly cheap. I'm not paying for these damages so I wonder if you can make a quick guess as to who is.”

The blond's apologetic look shifted as his brows knitted in confusion before they shot up in understanding and it all fell into a dark look of anger. To be perfectly honest the whole facial dance of expression was pretty amusing and fuck if Son of Apollo there didn't look hot when he was angry. But again, probably straight.

“Pay? It was a drop of wine, there, five cents. And mix some eggs with a can of beer, it gets out any stain. Pour a bit of lemon juice if it's particularly stubborn.” The busboy actually argued. Sasuke wasn't particularly expecting that, but he wasn't going to back down from a challenge. It just helped Sasuke that the manager had chosen that moment to appear.

“Is there a problem, Sir?” the nervous man asked, he was big with a mane of brilliant red hair with a suite that obviously needed refitting, but he was polite and was use to Uchiha regulars and their tempers. Well, mostly use to the usual loud mouthed all talk Uchiha, but they were mostly gone now. All that was left were the cool manipulative tempers of the remaining Uchiha. You would be hard pressed to see an Uchiha act anything less than regal now a days. And this was what tended to make people nervous.

“Yes, explain to me how this peon has found himself under you employment?” Sasuke asked darkly. The man stood stark for a minute before he started to stutter, trying to come up with some excuse. “Or has the quality of this establishment really gotten so low as to hire just any moron off the street?”

“What did you just say about me?” The blond busboy screeched, yeah, Sasuke was going to think about THAT look tonight. “Want to say that to my face!?”

“I'm sorry Sir, I will make sure to discipline Uzumaki promptly,” the manager bowed and assured.

“Discipline?” Sasuke asked with a raised brow, “that sounds like you're planning to let this fool keep working for you?”

“Sir?” The manager asked.

“This fool, who argues with customers, yells like a baboon, and can't even watch where he's going?” Sasuke looked down at the manager, a skill considering the man was standing and Sasuke was sitting, but every Uchiha learns it at birth.

The manager gulped glanced back and forth at Sasuke and the busboy. Sasuke wondered why he was struggling to do it, the blond must really be something to make the manager actually consider opposing an Uchiha in public. “I'm s-sorry, I'm sorry Naruto, but I'm afraid you're, uh-”

“You're not actually going to fire me, Mr. Akimichi?” 'Naruto' looked betrayed at the man.

“I'm sorry, Naruto, I just can't afford the bad publicity,” the manager put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. “You understand.” Sasuke watched as the blond busboy bit his lip and looked at his shoes.

“Yeah, I get. Don't worry, I don't blame you.” Naruto then looked pissed and glared at Sasuke. “It doesn't mean I'm taking this laying down.” He growled.

Sasuke smirked and rested his cheek in his hand. “What are you going to do? Spit in my food? You don't work here anymore.”

Naruto's brilliant eyes narrowed, focusing in on Sasuke as if he were staring into the ebony's very soul. Sasuke knew he was only seeing a void of emotionless ice, but Sasuke wasn't too worried about it. Pissing off the blond was distracting him from how pissed he was at his father, and besides, this Naruto was most likely straight.

“No, I don't work here anymore,” Naruto agreed. “Which means Mr. Akimichi is no longer responsible for my actions.” Sasuke was starting to get worried. There were only three types of people who went from as outrageously pissed to eerily calm like the busboy just did. Either something about the situation just changed (that didn't seem to apply), they were Uchiha (this guy was no relative of Sasuke's, that was obvious), or they were about to get physical in a very dangerous way. Still though, Sasuke was determined not to betray his emotions.

“Oh, and what does that change?” Sasuke challenged.

“Well, that means I can go ahead and take care of that stain for you.” Naruto gently picked up Sasuke's wine. It was in an instant, Sasuke didn't have time to react as the busboy doused Sasuke's shirt with his own wine. Sasuke shot up, knocking his chair over and banging his knee on the table.

“You wretch!” Sasuke, did NOT squeal. Uchiha never 'squeal'. Naruto gave a smug, satisfied smirk placing the tray and glass down gently.

“There, now you can't even see the stain,” Naruto chuckled and started to strut, fucking strut, away.

“You can kiss any future employment in this city good-bye!” Sasuke shouted at his retreating back. All he got in response was a middle finger tossed haphazardly over the ex-busboy's shoulder. A small hum of approval snatched Sasuke's attention back to the manager. Mr. Akimichi quickly wiped the proud look of his face and was quick with his meek facade. The large man was quick to try and appease the wine soaked Uchiha with promises of damage control and a free meal. Sasuke just pulled his chair back up to fall into it.

“Skip it,” He sighed and leaned his cheek in his hand again. This time he stared at the chair across from him with an empty expression.

“Sir?” the manager seemed confused.

“I said skip it. I have better things to do than to go after some restaurant for one bad employee,” Sasuke muttered.

“How grown up of you, Nephew!” The new voice called out. Sasuke visibly jumped and looked up. Standing before him was his Uncle Obito, or Tobi as he preferred.

“Uncle,” Sasuke addressed.

“Sorry I'm late, dear Nephew.” His uncle placed himself in the empty seat and leaned back in the chair. “I completely forgot about our dinner, and sweet Itachi had to remind me! Imagine how awful I feel!” Obito pouted and mocked Sasuke's pose.

“At least you showed,” Sasuke muttered. “Mr. Akimichi, I believe we're ready to order.”

“Ah, yes Sir!” the manager snapped to attention and promptly took the two Uchiha's orders. While nothing else seemed to be going right for Sasuke, the frustrated crumpling of paper from Ms. Chi's table did make it a little bearable.

 


	2. Dream On Life Support

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto has a question and makes a decision about his future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unedited, there was no beta. As far as I'm concerned, you guys ARE my beta's.

 

Chapter Two : Dream On Life Support

 

_“Iruka, why do I have to do this stupid homework?” Tiny little Naruto whined with a pout from the kitchen table. His adoptive father, Iruka Umino, had finally gotten to the point of tying the hyperactive brat to his chair, putting the knot in the back of the chair where Naruto couldn't get to it. The boy needed his hands to write, after all._

_“You need to do your homework so that you can get good grades, Naruto,” Iruka answered, he was sitting across from Naruto at the table, grading homework from his class. Since Naruto wasn't in his class anymore, he wasn't worried about the boy seeing the answer sheet, it wasn't going to do him any good after all. This set up also put Iruka in a good spot to help Naruto whenever the kid got stuck on a problem. The main issue was that Naruto didn't have the attention span to really focus enough to get stuck often._

_Naruto tried squirming out of the knot, not caring that he was attempting the escape in front of Iruka. He was bound and determined to get out of the chair and move. It made the man sigh. The two had tried so many different techniques to try and manage Naruto's ADHD, and yes, Iruka had the boy tested, he was an extreme case. Problem was, Naruto didn't react well to Ritalin and Iruka didn't like depending on the drugs too much unless absolutely necessary anyway._

_Iruka remembered last week when they did an activity for each assignment Naruto finished, but that slowly became non-helpful when the blond got bored of it. Another set back from the ADHD, the same solution didn't always work twice. In the end, the only thing that Iruka could really do was tie Naruto down and try to be patient with the boy as the kid trudged through his work load._

_“Why should I care about some stupid grade anyway? Everyone's always making a big deal about getting high scores and small letters, why does it matter?” Naruto argued, now nearly rocking the chair back and forth trying to spin the rope._

_“High scores means you're paying attention in class and learning the information your teacher is telling you. That's why higher schools look for higher grades. They want to know that you're actually trying to learn instead of just goofing off in class, Naruto,” Iruka explained with his cheek in his hand, elbow on the table. “It's my job to help you trick them into thinking you're one of those students their looking for,” he muttered the add on._

_“Hey, what was that? Iruka!?!” Naruto yelled across the table, shoving an accusatory finger Iruka's way._

_“The truth.” Iruka reached over with his own hand and tapped Naruto on the head with his pencil. Naruto stewed in his rage a moment before the steam cleared slightly._

_“Why do I care about some uppity school?” Naruto crossed his arms and pointed his nose in the air._

_“Because the better the school you go to, the better the job you'll have in the future. Employers like to have smart employees. They require less attention and are typically better at their jobs. So the more you know, the more money you'll make one day,” Iruka gave an extreme summary of the world._

_“So dumb! Jobs aren't fun! They're so boring!” Naruto started to jump around in his seat again, testing the limits of the rope. Iruka had to give, he really was getting better at his knot tying, if only to tie down Naruto. Then again, Naruto was also getting better at his escaping. Kid could probably make a living someday as a magician._

_“Then find a fun job to work at,” Iruka suggested._

_“What? A 'fun' job?” Naruto looked confused for a moment before he glared and pointed again, “There's no such thing! You're trying to trick me!”_

_“Seriously, Naruto, think about it.” Iruka waved his hands in an attempt at appeasement. “Actors, Musicians, Magicians, Writers, Artists, there's plenty of fun jobs out there. As far as I'm concerned Teaching is a pretty fun job. I get to hang out with kids all day and make hundreds of friends everyday!”_

_Naruto paused to think about it for a minute before he smiled. “Alright! I'll be one of those things then!” Iruka sighed in relief and looked back at Naruto. The boy was pulling out a new sheet of paper and started writing a list of different jobs that he wanted to try._

_“You could try all of them some day, Naruto,” Iruka reassured, “but only if you do your homework.” This prompted Naruto to start squirming around in his chair, protesting the injustice of it all._

_Three hours later, homework was done, and Naruto had finally run himself to sleep. This left Iruka to clean up the apartment. Some days he wondered what he was thinking, taking Naruto in like he did. He loved the kid, sure, but he was only, what, thirteen years older than the boy? He had no clue what he was doing!_ But then again _, Iruka thought to himself as he pulled the list of jobs from the pile of papers on the table,_ most times it's so rewarding having Naruto around.

_The next morning, when Naruto got up to get ready for school, he noticed the list he made was now pinned to the center of the fridge with the letter magnets. Iruka had even taken the time to write out 'DREAM LIST' with the letters around the paper. It made Naruto smile and he then went to school that day with a large grin._

 

***

 

Naruto sighed as he walked into his adoptive father's home. Ever since he and Hinata broke things off, he had moved back in with Iruka. It wasn't like Hinata kicked him out, really, but he had felt bad about ending their three year engagement, living with her afterward was just feeling like a stab in his heart every time he went inside. Not that moving back in with 'Dad' was much better for the twenty-two year old. He wanted independence dammit!

“I'm home,” he called out sheepishly.

“Already?” Iruka called confused from the kitchen. There was a shuffling sound of metal pans being placed down before the brunet's head poked out from behind the wall separating the Kitchen from the living room. “What did you do?” Iruka's tone was suspicious.

“Why did I have to have done something?” Naruto grumbled with his arms crossed. Seriously, no faith, none what so ever.

“Because you only ever get huffy and defensive when you've done something you feel bad about, Naruto. It's your tell,” Iruke crossed his arms and frowned. Naruto wanted to keep arguing but he couldn't bring himself to just flat out lie to Iruka. The guy had done so much for him it wouldn't have been fair.

“Alright, fine, I got fired. Happy?” Naruto huffed and stomped to his bed room.

“Fired?!” Iruka cried out, “Mr. Akimichi fired you? Why?” Iruka followed Naruto's pace and stopped the door from being slammed in his face. He knew how to handle Naruto's out bursts.

“Some rich asshole was being a prick. He spilled wine on himself and instead of fessing up that he just had an accident, he started yelling at me as if I poured a whole glass of wine down his shirt!” Naruto explained. “I wasn't even near the guy! When Mr. Ackimichi came up to see what was wrong, the guy then demanded he fire me on the spot!”

“And he did it just like that?” Iruka asked in disbelief. He had known Mr. Ackimichi since the man's son Choji had been in Iruka's elementary school class. They were kind people with big hearts and Chioji was one of the first friends Naruto ever made. It didn't add up that Mr. Ackimichi would just fire Naruto like that.

“He didn't want to. He was in a tight spot,” Naruto defended him. Iruka didn't quiet understand, but if Naruto was defending him, there really must have been more to the story, maybe something Naruto didn't quiet catch himself. “Either way. I was fired and so I decided I had nothing to lose, so I took the rest of the guy's wine and actually _did_ pour it down his shirt. So I do feel a bit better than if I had just gone sniveling home.”

“You did WHAT?” Iruka screeched. “Naruto, that's extremely rude!”

“So is getting people fired for no reason!” Naruto screeched back. Iruka couldn't argue that front. So instead the man sighed and sat down next to Naruto on the bed where the blond sat staring at his feet.

“So, what are you going to do now?” Iruka asked, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto took in a deep breath, held it a second, and then let it out in one big huff.

“I don't know. Rich Prick was making it clear that he was going to have me black listed in the entire city. Chances are, if I want an official job, I'm going to have to move out of Konoha to get it.” Naruto pulled his feet up to the bed and hugged them. “I wonder what Dad did when, . . .” Naruto's voice trailed off.

Iruka had to swallow around the sudden lump in his throat. Naruto didn't talk much about his birth parents, even though Iruka knew they were always on his mind. It had been a huge break through when they found Naruto's god Father and god Mother, Jiraya and Tsunande. Naruto had asked them questions non-stop about what his parents were like, it took them a month just to answer all the ones Naruto had stored up. If Naruto had a question about Minato Namikaze, then Iruka knew that he wasn't the person to ask.

“It doesn't seem too late, why don't you call up Mr. Jiraya and ask him what's on your mind?” Iruka suggested, Naruto glanced over at Iruka with a blank expression for a moment. Then as if a light had just been turned on, Naruto's smile lit up as well.

“That's a great idea! Thanks Iruka!” Naruto called out, he shifted and pulled out his phone to make the call.

“What do you want Brat? I'm in the middle of something.” Naruto heard his god Father from the other end of the line, along with distant pop-music, the chattering of a crowd, wolf whistles, and clapping.

“You Perverted Old Man! You're at a strip club aren't you!” Naruto cried out into the receiver.

“I'm researching, Brat! And you're being a huge interruption!” Jiraya called from the other side.

“Well, take a pause from it Old Perv, I have a question I need to ask.”

“How many times Kid? Don't, Call, Me, That!” Jiraya growled into the phone.

“I have a question about Dad!” Naruto repeated himself. There was a pause and then a shifting sound. Slowly the music and the chatter grew quieter until Naruto couldn't really hear it anymore. Finally, he was being taken seriously.

“A question about Mina, hu?” Jiraya asked in confirmation.

“Uh, yeah.” Naruto nodded, but then blushed when he realized that he was nodding to a phone. He glanced over to Iruka, but the guy was already leaving the room, giving Naruto space. The blond kinda appreciated that.

“Alright, Kid, shoot, what's the question?”

“Well, you told me once that Dad started writing because he couldn't get a job,” Naruto started.

“That's right. He didn't really have much of a desire for it until halfway into his first book. That's about the time he really started to get the hang of it, and next thing I knew, Minato was obsessed with it. Sometimes I'd wake up to the sound of his pen tapping and scratching at his note book so furiously I thought he'd start a fire. I can't tell you how often he had to spend a day just icing his hand, the fool.” Jiraya laughed at the memory. It wasn't often anyone referred to Naruto's father as 'fool'. From what everyone had told him, Naruto learned that Minato Namikaze was a certified genius with a cool temper and casual wit. But everyone had their foolish moments now and again. Naruto was kinda happy to hear that his father did too, it made him seem more, real.

“About that, Old Perv, why couldn't Dad get a job? He was like, super smart, wasn't he?” Naruto asked. That made Jiraya pause again.

“Um, well, you see, Kid, sometimes smart and powerful aren't actually the same thing,” Jiraya seemed to try to find the words to put to the memory. “You see, Minato had a friend once, kind of a sleaze bag to be honest, but he was Minato's best mate. When Minato met up with Kashuna, his mate, well. Geeze, Mankia didn't like Kashuna, thought she was too, well, you take a lot after her, Naruto, and Mankia grew up with a very prominent family. He didn't approve of Minato's choice for a girlfriend, fiance, then wife. He was determined to 'get his best friend back', however and swore that Minato's life would be hell so long as he was with Kashuna.” At the end of Jiraya's explanation he took a breath. “That's not where it ends, of course. Mankia only had so much pull and Minato was still able to find work here, there, and yonder, but Mankia was right about Minato's life starting to become hell. Kashuna started to get sick and she was heavily pregnant with a real brat at the time-”

“Hey”

“Don't interrupt. Anyway, Minato kept having to leave work on short notice to take Kashuna to the hospital. Eventually, he started to get fired a lot for his absences. And when his new employers would call his old employers for a reference, that was one of the first things they'd hear and they'd refuse to hire Minato at all.”

“So what does that Mankia guy have to do with it?” Naruto asked.

“First off, he gave Minato one last chance to leave Kashuna. Told him that he'd get Minato the referral of a life time and a nice cushy job to just sign a divorce paper. When Minato slugged him for even the thought, Mankia sued. And any and all hope of Minato finding work in Konoha flushed down the crapper.”

“So, and here's where my actual question comes in, what did Dad do then? Like, right before he started writing, right after all that mess?” Naruto asked, after all, that was point he was in now.

“Well, he didn't know what to do. Freaked out mostly,” Jiraya added unhelpfully.

“Aw, come on Old Perv! You've gotta give me more to work with here!” Naruto cried into the phone.

“What can I say, Kid? That's what happened. Minato couldn't find work, the bills started to come in and things got tough,” Jiraya reiterated. “He was drowning in debt, his wife and unborn child were dying, they were pretty much homeless and living in my basement of my old hut before I ended up going broke supporting them and having to sell it off. That really hit Minato in the gut, let me tell you. He was pissed at me for the longest time for letting him run me down like that. But what was I suppose to do? The kid was like a son to me!”

“What happened then?” Naruto's voice was soft again, hanging off of Jiraya's every word. It wasn't often he or Granny Tsunade would talk about the 'hard times', preferring to talk about the better days.

“Well, we all started to crash at Tsunade's. She had just taken in little Shizune at the time so she already didn't have a lot of room, but she was in the same boat I was in. Except, her heart felt just as heavy with Kashuna as it did Minato. She was the poor girl's family's doctor before the Uzumaki's all died out. She was desperate not to see the end of the family with Kashuna,” Jiraya side tracked a bit before getting back to the subject. “At that time I started doing the only thing I knew how to do to make money. Writing. This time I tried something a bit more family friendly, not my best work, but something that more people might buy and read than just my usual clientele. It was around this point of desperation that Minato decided to try writing himself. There really wasn't much else he could do and it was better than him just sitting around.”

Naruto took a breath and thought it over for a minute. He had already tried writing a story himself. He wasn't any good at it in the least, being too much like his mother. But he had his own hobby. Music. Naruto's eyes fell on his guitar in the corner. He hadn't played since his last jam session with Kiba and the others three months ago. He smiled.

“Alright, then that's what I've gotta do!” He shouted triumphantly.

“You're going to write a book?” Jiraya asked doubtfully.

“Yeah! NO! I'm going to play music full time!” Naruto explained. There was silence for a moment before mirthful laughter rang form the other side of the phone.

“Alright then, Kid,” Jiraya settled, “You know what, if anyone's got the spirit to go zero to rock-star, it'd be you.”

“You got it, Old Perv!” Naruto called out!

“I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING ME THAT YOU NASTY LITTLE BRAT!”

 

 


	3. Just A Tiny Background Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Uchiha Brothers aren't very well versed in the art of 'Respecting Privacy'.

 

Chapter Three : Just a Tiny Background Check

 

_The sent of buttered popcorn and fried foods wafted about the fair grounds. The calliope playing in the speakers was blasted on full volume and yet was still just barely distinguishable from the chatter of the crowds surrounding the two brothers. The elder of the two held tight to the smaller one's shirt to keep him from getting lost in the sea of people. They were already separated from their parents and the eleven year old was starting to get worried. His six year old little brother was already in tears trying to call for their mother._

_Itachi was running out of ideas on what to do. He knew that their mother was no doubt searching frantically for them, tears in her eyes, begging people to help her find her boys. He knew that while normally the best thing to do would be to stay still so she could find them, they needed to get somewhere out of the crowd to avoid getting trampled or parted from each other. He also needed to find a way to calm Sasuke down._

_From the corner of his eye, Itachi saw a lone booth, mostly ignored by the crowds. It was just on the outskirts of the fair grounds and so there wasn't nearly so many people and it was easy enough to single out each person within the area. It was the perfect._

_“Come on, Sasuke.” Itachi tugged on Sasuke's shirt. “You see that booth right there?” He asked his baby brother while pointing._

_“I want Mommy,” Sasuke whined._

_“Mother will see us better if we go over there, Little Brother, besides, it looks like fun,” Itachi insisted. Sasuke seemed to take a moment to ponder this, looking skeptically at the booth and then back to his brother before he gave a hesitant nod. Itachi smiled at his little brother before moving his hand from the back of Sasuke's shirt to the six year old's hand._

_It took Itachi a little while to get both himself and Sasuke to the booth safely, trying to politely navigate the masses of fair goers in their way. When they finally came up to the booth, Itachi saw that the booth in question was a bottle toss. He could see by the empty bottles and the rubber rings the type of game played. It wasn't insanely popular, in fact, the other children seemed to gravitate more toward the darts and balloons, or the water gun races. Itachi was worried that the game wouldn't hold Sasuke attention very well, but as soon as the duo walked up, Sasuke's eye went wide when large dark orbs landed on a giant, orange tiger stuffed toy._

_“I want it!” Sasuke proclaimed loudly, jumping and pointing at the toy. “Please, Itachi! I want it, I want it so bad!” He cried out._

_“You want this toy kid, then you gotta win it,” a voice called from the booth. The man within the booth explained. “A dollar a game; get each one of these five rings on a bottle and the tiger is yours.”_

_“Can I play, Itachi? Please!” Sasuke begged his older brother, hanging off Itachi's arm with all his weight. Itachi couldn't help but smile. He had twelve dollars on him, so there was no harm in a game or two. Besides, the longer Sasuke played, the more time their mother had to find them._

_“Alright. Do you have change for a five?” Itachi asked the man._

_“Yes Sir,” the man said as he smiled. He pulled out his lockable tin box and pulled out four dollars to trade Itachi for the five, and then handed Sasuke five of the rubber rings. Sasuke immediately started tossing the rings, going too fast at first, missing the first two. He frowned and slowed down. After the last ring was thrown, Sasuke was close to tears. He hadn't gotten a single one to land right._

_“It's okay, Sasuke, here, try again,” Itachi insisted, handing Sasuke another dollar. Sasuke traded the dollar for another five rings. This time Sasuke managed to get one out of the five, and the man behind the booth pointed to the one ring prizes. None of which impressed Sasuke. This continued four more times before Sasuke was now fully crying and kicking the ground._

_“Sasuke! Itachi!” Itachi looked over his shoulder to see his mother rushing toward them. Sasuke saw her too and as if he had completely forgotten that they were previously lost, he started to explain why he was upset to the woman._

_“Mom, I can't get the tiger! I need to get the five rings on the bottles, but it's too hard and I won't ever win it!” He cried harder._

_“I was so worried, I looked everywhere.” Mikoto Uchiha wasn't really listening to her youngest son's rant, too relieved to have found her children. She knelt down next to Sasuke to pull him into a tight embrace. She even reached out and yanked Itachi into it by his wrist._

_“I was so scared,” she sobbed. Itachi breathed a sigh of relief that his plan had worked and was happy to stick to their mother when she finally let them go._

_“Let's go home,” was the first thing she said, and Itachi agreed whole heartedly._

_“Please, can I try just one more time!” Sasuke asked, bouncing up and down next to his mother._

_“What do you mean, Sasuke?” Mikoto asked confused._

_“He means the bottle toss over there,” Itachi explained, “He's been trying to win that tiger for a while now.”_

_“I got three rings last time, I can do it this time!” Sasuke reasoned._

_“Sure, Sasuke, just one more and then we'll go, okay?” Mikoto offered and lead Sasuke back to the booth. She went to hand the man the dollar, but he waved her off._

_“This time it's on the house. Kid's been trying pretty hard for this. How about it, Kid, think you got it this time?” As the man spoke, he handed Sasuke the rings. Itachi could easily see he was doing it because their mom was pretty and she still had tear tracks down her cheeks. While it had always pained Itachi to see tears in his mother's eyes, she was always a pretty crier._

_“Oh, thank you.” Mikoto smiled and gave an encouraging pat on Sasuke's shoulder._

_“You've got it this time, Sasuke,” Itachi cheered. Sasuke looked determined as he lined the rings up. However, despite his determination and desperation, the first ring bounced right off. Already tears were filling the boy's eyes, no doubt blurring his vision. He already failed the tiger. In his rage, Sasuke haphazardly tossed the other four rings without aiming. Ironically, he actually got two of them to fall properly on the bottles._

_“Oh, you managed two of them, Sasuke! Good job!” Mikoto clapped._

_“But I didn't get the five rings to get the tiger,” Sasuke glared at the ground. Everyone paused, it looked like Sasuke was about to throw another tantrum. Surprising everybody, Sasuke took a deep breath and then grabbed his mother's hand. “I don't want it anymore anyway. It's stupid. Only babies play with those things.”_

_With that announcement, Sasuke started to pull at his mother's hand. Mikoto looked down at her youngest with a torn expression, but ultimately figured that 'Defeated-Sasuke' was better than 'Tantrum-Sasuke' and she was probably eager to get her boys back home. Itachi watched the retreating backs of his family before he turned to the man behind the booth. He was already putting the tin box away._

_“Wait,” Itachi called suddenly to him. The man paused before looking up at him expectantly. “I'd like a turn,” Itachi decided, holding up another dollar. The man shrugged, took the dollar and handed Itachi the rings._

_Itachi had excellent aim and it wasn't difficult for him at all to not only get every ring on a bottle, but he got them all on the same bottle. Well, not the last one, it wouldn't have fit and trying would have just been a foolish way to lose._

_“Whoa, Kid, I, uh-”_

_“That tiger please?” Itachi asked pointing to Sasuke's cherished prize. The man shook the stunned look off his face and unhooked the tiger from where it was hanging up. He passed the stuffed animal to Itachi and the boy thanked him before rushing after his mother and brother._

_“Sasuke,” Itachi called his little brother. Sasuke turned to look at Itachi with dead eyes. Those eyes immediately landed on the tiger and lit up. “You left too soon. The man said that since you did get three rings one time and then two rings that last time, that meant you got five rings on a bottle. You left without your prize!” Itachi lied. He didn't want Sasuke to feel like he had to depend on him, after all. And the triumphant look on his baby brother's face told him he did the right thing._

_“Really?!” Sasuke cried out latching onto the giant plush tiger with a steel grip. “Yay! I did it!” He then started to jump and dance around with his new stuffed friend. “I did it, I did it!”_

_“Good job, Sasuke,” Mikoto congratulated her son, however sent a knowing glance to Itachi telling him she knew exactly what just happened and she was proud of him. That was more than enough for Itachi. The three then made their way for the car where Sasuke promptly named the tiger 'Fire' and then fell asleep on Fire's back._

 

_***_

 

Sasuke trudged to his in home office. He was still wearing the wine soaked shirt, but had peeled off the almost equally ruined jacket to hang off of his office chair. After his Uncle Tobi had come to his rescue, the rest of the night went uneventfully. By Uchiha standards at least.

His uncle kept making remarks to his new fashion sense. Apparently it amused the forty year old man to no end that a busboy actually poured wine on an Uchiha without a single drop of fear of repercussion. Chi from the Daily Sound was constantly making notes but then seemed to give up after about an hour of pointless conversation between the two relatives.

Sasuke didn't really have a whole lot in common with his Uncle Tobi other than he was to be in the same position in the family as him someday. Just as Itachi was to be in his Uncle Madara's soon. Therefore the conversation didn't really stem too close to anything particularly personal. Sasuke asked Tobi how his friend Kakashi was doing, Tobi said he was doing okay. Tobi asked Sasuke how he was handling the work load from the past week, Sasuke divulged that he was rushing to finish the last presentation but was otherwise breezing through the rest of it.

By the end of the night, Chi was slamming her head on the table, Sasuke's shirt had somewhat dried, and his uncle paid for the meal. His penitence for 'being late'. Sasuke caught onto his meaning immediately. His uncle felt bad that Sasuke had been stood up by his own father and was trying to make up for it.

So now completely alone in his way too large home, Sasuke didn't even bother turning a single light on as he woke up his desktop computer. His mind kept wanting to drift to why his father had ditched out on him tonight, so of course Sasuke forced it to thinking on anything else. For a second his brain drifted on stock numbers before it fell on that brilliant blond hair and outraged face of the busboy.

Sasuke bit his lip as he thought about that man. Naruto Uzumaki. That was what the manager called him. He had the name memorized the moment the large man uttered it. Sure, he knew that Naruto had said the manager's name, but Mr. Whatever didn't interest Sasuke. Naruto did.

Pulling up the internet browser, Sasuke logged into a Background Search site that the company used to look into potential employees, business partners, and really anything. Sasuke felt no shame in using it now to look into the personal life of Ex-busboy Naruto Uzumaki. He was almost feeling giddy as the program loaded and searched through the files.

Just before the loading bar was full, however, there was a sound of someone entering Sasuke's home unbidden. Freezing in his spot, Sasuke strained his ears to listen for his intruder. He relaxed a little when the familiar stride matched that of one Itachi Uchiha. He was only given confirmation when his elder brother called out.

“Sasuke? You in there?”

“In here, Brother,” Sasuke called back. Not a moment later, Itachi stood in the door frame of Sasuke's home office, frown set in place.

“You're going to ruin your eyes like this, Little Brother,” Itachi lectured.

“As if, Uchiha are known for their eyes,” Sasuke argued. He immediately regretted it when Itachi flipped on the lights and he was painfully blinded. “Gah! Warning next time!”

“You didn't see me reaching for the switch with that perfect eye sight of yours?” Itachi teased.

“Jerk.” That was it, Sasuke's great wit at work. “What can I help you with, Itachi?”

“I just wanted to check in with you. Uncle Tobi let me know he was on his way home which meant you were already home,” Itachi explained.

“Well, I'm home in one piece if that's what you were worried about,” Sasuke muttered. He looked up to see Itachi's face unsettling deadpan. Sasuke was worried for a moment and was about to ask Itachi if _he_ was alright. Then he saw it, the slight pinch in the corner of Itachi's lip as the elder forced himself not to smile. Sasuke then remembered that he was still wearing his wine soaked shirt.

“Yes, Brother?” Sasuke's voice was strained behind clenched teeth.

“It looks like you had an eventful night, Sasuke,” Itachi's voice was the definition of controlled, which only gave away his urge to laugh. “I'm certain there's a story to be told?”

“I don't want to talk about it,” Sasuke growled and shifted his focus back to his computer. Itachi hummed monotonously, and then pulled out his phone and sat in the couch against the opposite wall. Sasuke was content with ignoring him in favor of looking into his new favorite enemy. Then Itachi put his phone to his ear and Sasuke heard him speak to someone on the other end of the line.

“Uncle, I was wondering how your night went?” Itachi asked. Sasuke frowned and looked over at Itachi confused. “So dinner was pleasant then?”

Sasuke felt a twitch start up right under his right eye. “So, may I ask about the wine? . . . I see, so he was already like that when you showed up. . . . Yes, it's definitely a fashion statement to be sure.”

“Damnit Itachi, stop talking about me like I'm not here!” Sasuke called over to his brother.

Itachi just waved him off, “So did he ever tell you- . . . A waiter?” Itachi put the phone to his shoulder and looked over to Sasuke, “A waiter spilled wine on you?”

“He was a busboy, not a waiter,” Sasuke corrected with a dark voice.

“I see, important distinction,” Itachi nodded with an overly serious face and put the phone back to his ear. “What was that Uncle? Oh, I'll be sure to tell him. Alright, thank you.” With that Itachi hung up the phone and looked back to Sasuke with an innocent look plastered on his face.

“That was uncalled for,” Sasuke muttered to Itachi with a sour look.

“What do you mean 'uncalled for'? I called,” Itachi smirked.

“I hate you.” Sasuke put his face in his hands as he spoke. Itachi just 'hn'ed at him and then moved to come stand next to him.

“So, I'm going to assume that this 'work' that you're doing in the middle of the night has something to do with this, busboy?” Itachi asked. Sasuke sighed and gave it, there's no stopping Itachi when he was in 'big brother' mode.

“Background check just loaded while you were being childish.” Sasuke barely finished speaking when Itachi leaned in over his shoulder.

“Naruto Uzumaki, huh? Same age as you, never graduated from high school, got his GED four years ago, jumped from job to job for the past six years,” Itachi muttered.

“To think, I actually wasted the time to get this moron fired when all I had to do was wait out the night,” Sasuke sneered. “Look at these, no academic achievements, no school clubs, not even so much as an attempt at college or a higher education!”

“Well, you may very well see Mr. Uzumaki on the street corner soon, Little Brother,” Itachi sighed, “pity. And look at this photo, so pretty. Such a waste.”

“Pretty? I thought you didn't swing for either team, Itachi?” Sasuke joked.

“Doesn't mean I can't appreciate from a distance, Little Brother.”

“So, pretty face, empty head space. I actually don't even feel bad.” Sasuke leaned back in his chair. “There's nothing interesting about this guy in the least.” While Sasuke spoke, Itachi scrolled through Uzumaki's information before he stopped dead and then when rigid. “Itachi?”

“Sasuke, did you say you got him fired?” Itachi asked in a strained voice. Well, strained for Itachi.

“Uh, yeah, he spilled wine on me. Why?”

“We may have a problem.” Sasuke was baffled by the cryptic reply until he looked back to the screen to see what had his brother so spooked. Instantly Sasuke felt all the blood drain from his face.

“Hyuga?” Sasuke's voice had gone soft with disbelief, “How does a worthless moron like Uzumaki have a Hyuga as his second emergency contact?” Sasuke felt the strength come back to his voice and the blood rush back to his cheeks ten fold. He was quickly becoming furious.

“Not just any Hyuga either, Lady Hinata Hyuga, heiress to Byakugan Corp,” Itachi pointed out. “You remember Miss Hinata, Sasuke? She was at the Tagshi's Charity event four months ago.”

Sasuke remembered Hinata Hyuga. She was sheepish and unfit for her role as Heiress. That wasn't really a point against her, Sasuke actually didn't mind her too much. She kept to herself unless it was to be genuinely invested in another person's well being. She was gentle and patient with a very sincere grace that put all the focus on whom ever she spoke to instead of herself. In many ways she reminded both brothers of their mother Mikoto Uchiha. Sasuke remembered thinking that if he wasn't completely gay, he might have fallen for the young woman.

“He must be a charity case, a pet project of sorts,” Sasuke stammered in a very unUchiha like way.

“Looks like he's adopted. Parents Minato Namikaze and Kashuna Uzumaki both died same year he was born. Minato Namikaze, where have I heard that name before?” Itachi muttered as he folded his hands in front of his mouth. Sasuke looked at him curiously. It wasn't often that Itachi couldn't place a face to a name, the man was a certified genius after all. Sasuke turned back to the screen as his brother thought.

“Looks like he was giving his mother's family name instead of his father's,” Sasuke pointed out with an empty voice. He was still reeling on the fact that Naruto Uzumaki had connections with the Hyuga. What ever the reason was, Sasuke was screwed. There was only one family with more money, more connections, and more, well, everything, than the Uchiha, and that was the Hyuga. All Son-of-Apollo had to do was go cry to Hinata about the mean Uchiha Bastard that got him fired and Sasuke will be at fault for having single handedly bringing the end of the of Sharingon Enterprises.

“Minato- Namikaze-, I swear this is going to drive me insane,” Itachi growled. Obviously upset by the failings of his own mind, Itachi moved to click on one of Uzumaki's social profiles. The page was brought up to reveal so much more than the plain documentations. Then again, it normally did.

Naruto Uzumaki had a picture of a Cup-O-Ramen as his profile pic, probably some hipster thing. Itachi immediately clicked on 'PICTURES'. Nothing says more about a person than the pictures they tended to share or have shared of them. They were surprised to find that Uzumaki hardly uploaded any pictures of himself, but there were hundreds taken of him by other people. Turns out that Uzumaki had a band and played guitar. There were pictures of him singing as well. There were some of him with friends, drinking and rough housing. But there was one that really hit Sasuke in the gut. Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga, holding each other, kissing. What's more is you could clearly see her left hand. And the ring.

“He's her fiance,” Sasuke felt his entire body clench up. That wasn't fair! What did some nobody have to do with the Hyuga heiress? How did they even meet? How was Sasuke suppose to know that the bumbling moron of a busboy was Hyuga's fiance? It was a trap! He was a perfect idiot! Sure, he looked like a demi-god, and yeah, he wasn't afraid of standing on equal footing with someone with money. The guy had a back bone, Sasuke would give him that. He also had to admit that he was shown up by said broke, moronic, demi-god like, sexy, guitar-playing, fuck!

“I'm done,” Sasuke announced, startling his brother. Itachi turned his head to look at Sasuke with shock.

“Sasuke?”

“I'm done. I'm putting this down and getting back to something actually productive.” Sasuke explained, “I don't need to be wasting my time on some stupid, layabout when I could be getting work done.” With that, Sasuke closed out of the search tab and pulled up his company email. He didn't really want to do any of his work. All he had on his plate at the moment was that presentation anyway and everything else was kind of someone else's job. But hell, what is a boss for if not to do other people's work from time to time.

“I see. Alright then Sasuke.” Itachi rose from where he was previously leaning next to his little brother. He left Sasuke to his busy work and started for the door. He barely paused to toss “Good night, Little Brother,” as he left. He didn't wait for Sasuke to not reply, he just left.

Once in his car, Itachi pulled out his phone and made a quick call to his secretary. “Shinko, I need a full scale background check on one Naruto Uzumaki, please get it to me by tomorrow afternoon.” _Don't worry, Little Brother,_  Itachi thought as he drove off into the night, _I'll get you your Fire._

 

 


	4. United Under The Fool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is calling in the cavalry!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I having updated as fast. I only just finished chapter five and I'm kinda slowing down. As I said when I started this, updates will be pretty sporadic.

 

Chapter Four : United Under the Fool!

 

_Naruto couldn't help it, the song was stuck in his head. It didn't help that he couldn't just sing it all out to get it to leave him alone, because the rest of the song didn't exist! He was bored at one point and started singing on his way to school, making up the words as he went. Normally he'd forget the entire song before too long, but this time, one line kept repeating itself over and over in his head. “I am a Fighting Dreamer! Kicking butt and eating Ramen!”_

_He had it in his head since elementary school. Back then Naruto was always bored and alone. Naruto would sing that line, make up a bunch of other verses, sing the line again, and then keep the song going until he was sick of his own voice. He didn't need it so much anymore and had pretty much forgotten the song since he had started Middle School. But it popped into his head at random and now it wouldn't leave._

_Humming the song under his breath, Naruto didn't realize he was getting annoying with it until his best friend Kiba poked him hard in the back with his pencil. Naruto stopped humming and threw a glare over his shoulder before getting back to his own work. This repeated multiple times until class let out and Kiba rounded on him._

_“Dude, what was that about?” Kiba growled, upset at having been distracted all class. He had been trying to doddl-erm pay attention dammit._

_“I've got a song stuck in my head, okay?” Naruto growled back._

_“What song?” Naruto sighed at the question and explained._

_“I was just something I came up with okay? It goes, 'I am a Fighting Dreamer, kicking butt and eating ramen-' and then I just make up the rest cause I can never remember it,” Naruto confessed._

_Kiba blinked a couple of times before he smiled. “Dude, you're writing a song? That's actually kind of cool. How about, 'Fighting Dreamer, I pull moves with my Ninja grooves?” he suggested. Naruto grinned wide._

_“Yeah! That's so cool! What should the next line be?”_

_“What line? What are you two talking about?” A new voice came up. Naruto and Kiba looked over their shoulders to see another of their friends, Shikamaru, and right beside him was Choji._

_“Naruto's writing a song! Check it, 'I am a Fighting Dreamer, kicking butt and eating ramen. Fighting Dreamer, I pull moves with my Ninja grooves!” Kiba sang it out for Shikamaru and then scratched his head. “We were just now trying to come up with the next line.”_

_“Then just repeat that a second time and go to the next verse,” Shika suggested._

_“What?” Naruto looked at him curiously. Shikamaru sighed and sang the song back to them but adding 'Right Here and Now, we'll blast past our troubles like a rifle liner' changing up the tune just a little._

_“Yeah! That's totally going in the song!” Naruto agreed._

_“What are you waiting for, Genius? Write it down so you don't forget!” Kiba warned him._

_“Right!” Naruto quickly opened his back pack and pulled out his notebook and a pen. “Quick Shika, sing it again!”_

_“You know,” Choji interrupted, “If more than one person is working on the song, maybe it could be 'We are Fighting Dreamers'?” Naruto looked at Choji for a moment at his suggestion. He couldn't help but then glance at Shikamaru and Kiba, both arguing against the idea. When Naruto used to sing this song, it was out of the need to not feel so lonely. But now? Now he had friends who were helping him fix his song. It wasn't just him by himself anymore._

_“Yeah, I like Choji's idea,” Naruto finally said, shutting Kiba and Shikamaru up. “We ARE Fighting Dreamers!”_

 

_***_

 

It was late in the morning when Naruto finally woke up. He almost didn't want to bother getting out of bed, having lost his job the night before. However when he rolled over and opened his eyes just a little to check to the time, he got a glance at his guitar, still sitting forgotten in it's stand. Of course that got Naruto to leap out of bed, grogginess gone.

“That's right! I was going to call Kiba today!” He shouted out to no one in particular. He quickly snatched his phone form it's charger and tapped on the screen until it displayed Kiba Inuzuka's number and picture along with the loading little 'dialing' symbol. Kiba of course didn't pick up until the fifth ring.

“Oi, Moron, do you have any idea how early it is?” Naruto's best friend growled into the phone.

“It's almost ten, get your lazy ass up,” Naruto huffed. He was also trying to get dressed with one hand while the other held the phone to his ear.

“I'm on night shift, Naruto, this is, like, three in the morning for me or something, I've only been sleeping for four hours!”

“Then go to days!” Naruto argued back, “And don't give me that crap, I worked the night shift last night and I didn't have a problem waking up this morning.”

“I heard you got fired.” Naruto paused at that and felt blood rush to his cheeks.

“Who told you that?!” Now the blond was waving his arms and stomping his feet in a frenzy, God he hated gossip.

“Choji did, said his dad called him right after it happened,” Kiba explained. Naruto could hear the guy finally sitting up in his bed as he got serious. “Man, he told me what happened, and that has to suck. I mean, I know you hated that job and all, but it's not like you deserved to just get fired like that. Mr. Akimichi sounded pretty upset at himself, too.”

“He shouldn't,” Naruto finally calmed down and waved off Kiba's concern. “He was stuck between a rock and a hard place, I get how that can feel. He pulled a lot of stings to get me that job, so if I feel bad for anyone, it's him. I think that was the only reason I hadn't quit before now, to be honest.”

Kiba chuckled on the other end of the phone and Naruto heard more shuffling. “So there really are no hard feelings then, huh? What are you going to do now?”

“That's just it, I think it's time I stop hesitating and time I picked up my guitar full time,” Naruto explained. There was a pause before Kiba responded.

“Oh, no. Oh, no no no no. Count me out!” Kiba chanted as Naruto heard the guy pacing.

“Oh, come on! We rocked! Why not get the band back together?” Naruto asked.

“Because there was a damn good reason we stopped, you moron!” Kiba pointed out.

“No, there was a good reason that Gaara and his siblings dropped out. There was a good reason that Hinata stopped, too. Even Shino, Tenten, and Ino had good reasons to quit. You, Shikamaru, and Choji are all in the same boat I'm in and we all know Sakura never wanted to stop despite her having a very damn good reason to.”

“I had a good reason, too!” Kiba cried out in indignation.

“Yeah? Then please, refresh my memory,” Naruto challenged.

“I, um, have to help out with the animal shelter?” Kiba gave a weak attempt.

“You can do that and still play during the day.”

“I also have a full time job!” Kiba gave a stronger attempt.

“A full time job that almost never gives you hours as you so often love to complain about. Next?”

“I hate you.”

“No, you love me and my dream chasing spirit!” Naruto went in for the kill.

“Fine!” Kiba gave in. “Get Shika and Choji in on it and I'll rejoin the stupid, fucking band, alright?” Kiba relented.

“Hey, you wanna see how many of the others we can pull back in as well?” Naruto asked.

“No. That's just it Naruto.” Kiba's voice settled into something that wasn't quite a lecture and wasn't all the way to nostalgic, somewhere between probably. “Face it, the reason the band failed so badly back then was because we were trying to go too big too soon. Seriously, what band needs fourteen members?”

“Alright, fine. But if they come around,”

“We'll deal with it then. For now, Fox Face, why don't you just give 'Ol Shikamaru a call?” Naruto laughed and gave an affirmative before hanging up on Kiba. He was glad Kiba was willing to get back in, he was one of the two main vocalist for their signature song, after all.

With one down and two more to go, Naruto then got started on calling up Shikamaru Nara, hoping to every cloud in the damn sky the guy paid his fucking phone bill again. He didn't want to have to hunt down the lazy genius again just to hear him complain about how much of a drag his phone was.

“Hello, you've reached '3-0-5-9-9-7-6', who cannot come to the phone right now. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message at the sound of the tone. Afterwards, you may hang up or press 'one' for more options- **beep** ”

“Dammit, Shikamaru! Answer your damn phone sometime! Kiba and I are trying to start the band back up, you're my first choice for bass, but don't think I won't just ask Lee! Call me back!” Naruto hung up. Of course Shikamaru didn't answer. Probably found it too much of a 'drag'.

Sighing and hoping he'll at least get two of the three, Naruto started his phone to dial Choji Akimichi. Unlike the other two, Choji was always quick to answer his phone, picking up after only the third ring.

“Hey, Naruto, Buddy, how are you doing?” Choji was keeping his voice soft for some reason.

“Huh? Oh, I'm good, Choji, I'm just calling cause-”

“Look, Naruto, Dad told me all about what happened last night. Don't worry, he's trying to find a way to get you your job back without that Uchiha guy finding out about it. You might be put in the kitchen for a while, but at least you'll be making money. Right?”

“No, Choji, I'm not worried about that, I'm not all too upset about the job. I was wondering-”

“Oh, Naruto, you're really something else, you know that? Hold on, Dad's right here. *Hey, Dad! Naruto saying he's doing alright and he doesn't feel sour about last night at all. How's that? Huh? What a stand up guy!*”

“*Oh, you should have seen him, Choji. Naruto really took the whole thing with grace. Who would have thought, right?*” Naruto could hear Mr. Akimichi speaking in the background. Naruto felt himself double back on that. Grace? He yelled at the guy, poured wine down his shirt, and then flipped him off as he walked away. Bad ass, sure, but hardly graceful.

“CHOJI!” Naruto called out after realizing he had lost the other man. Choji and his father had started on their own conversation. “I'm trying to restart the band!”

“Oh, Naruto, Dad's going to get you a job, don't worry, you don't have to resort to that old gig,” Choji insisted.

“It's not a last resort, Choji. I'm tired of feeling like I'm wasting my life in some job I don't even like when I really want to be playing music. Seriously, I've already called Kiba and Shikamaru, they're on board! But we need our drummer and you know there's only one drummer for the 'Fighting Dreamers',” Naruto pitched the idea.

“Tenten?” Choji asked.

“Well, aside from her.” Whoops, Naruto nearly forgot Tenten was their back up drummer.

“Temari?” Choji tried again. There was a sound of amusement in his voice and Naruto realized that the tubby man was teasing him.

“Fine, we had three drummers but you're my favorite, alright? I don't want to have to ask one of the girls,” Naruto admitted. “That doesn't mean I won't, just that I'd rather you instead.”

“Alright, I get it, Naruto. I mean, I'd have to work around my schedule with my dad to see when I'll have time. But you know what? You're right, why don't we start back up? Hey! I'll call Ino!”

“Actually Choji, Kiba thinks it would be better if we try to start small this time,” Naruto repiled meekly. “He thinks the whole reason Fighting Dreamers fell apart the first time was because we had too many people.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Choji hummed. Then he seemed to have thought of something, “You're going to call Sakura, right?” He asked.

“Why would I call Sakura?” Naruto asked back. It wasn't that he was adverse to calling his dear friend, he just didn't understand why Choji thought she should be the exception to the 'starting small'.

“Well, she _was_ our manager last time, as well as a bad ass back up guitar. Not to mention you know she was the last one, next to only you, to let the band go. She'd be pissed if we started it back up again and didn't invite her.”

“Yeah, you're right, I hadn't thought about it,” Naruto thought it through, then he chuckled. “Sure! I'll give her a call as well! Thanks Choji!”

“No problem, Naruto! I can't wait!” With that the conversation ended and Naruto hung up, already reading his phone for one last call. Sakura Haruno.

She picked up almost immediately.

“Naruto! Hey, long time no chat!” Sakura sounded super happy to hear from him. Something about it seemed a bit off but Naruto shrugged and was just happy she answered.

“Sakura! Hey! Yeah, sorry I haven't called in a while, I guess I just lost touch with everything for a while.”

“Oh no, that sounds terrible, is she okay?” Sakura asked in an overly worried voice.

“What? Is who okay? You mean Hinata?” Naruto asked confused.

“Oh dear! How horrible! I wish there was something I could do to help, I could be there in five minutes but I'm - *what? My friend, his fiance just got into a car wreck and he needs a ride to the hospital!*” Naruto listened as Sakura 'explained' the situation to someone on the other end of the line. He was kinda miffed that Sakura was using Hinata like that in her story, especially since she was one of the first people he turned to talk after he and Hinata broke up. He heard a bit more of the conversation between Sakura and who ever she was talking too before Sakura moved the phone back in place to talk to Naruto. “Alright, I'm on my way right now. Don't worry I'll pick you up and we can head straight for the hospitaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal~right I'm now out of hearing rang. I'm sorry Naruto, bad date. You couldn't have called at a better time!”

Naruto understood and took a breath, “It's fine, but you didn't have to use Hinata, you know.”

“I thought you two were still friends?” Sakura asked curiously.

“We are, but I mean, the relationship part is still kinda, I mean-” Naruto couldn't quite put words to it. Yeah, he and Hinata were still good, but the whole thing was still awkward.

“I'm sorry, Naruto, you're right, I'm being insensitive. I just got a bit desperate to get out of there,” Sakara apologized.

“Ha, when you say 'bad date'?” Naruto asked.

“He makes Gaston from Beatuy and the Beast look humble,” Sakura growled into the phone before deepening her voice to mock the guy. “'Yes, I was the quarter back of my high school football team. I won us every game. The only reason I didn't go into football in college was to focus my attention on my doctorate. Why, I could've gone pro with the pig skin but I find that surgery makes for better money. And with my steady hands, I could safe more than a million lives if given half a chance'. OH PLEASE!”

Naruto had to try not to laugh too loud after Sakura's out cry. “Guess you need something to get your mind off your bad date then, huh?” He was trying to set up his talk about the band, but Sakura wasn't finished venting.

“Oh and don't get me started on his hands! He kept trying to put them on my thigh and didn't get the hint when ever I put my purse in the way or would suddenly stand up to do literally anything, even if it was just to stretch out! He actually asked if I wanted to 'take this party somewhere private'.”

“Sounds like a real sleaze ball. Why didn't you deck him?” Naruto was now actually curious. When they were in middle school, Naruto would ask Sakura out non-stop and she'd always punch him after her initial 'no'. He had since learned to take 'no' for what it's worth and their friendship had since prospered.

“Because I'm Twenty-One and can be tried as an adult,” Sakura grumbled dejectedly into the phone. Naruto laughed, yeah, that's about the only thing that could stop the volatile natural force that was Sakura Haruno.

“I have idea on how to lift your spirits, Sakura!” Naruto smiled into the phone, hoping to finally get to business this time.

“Yeah? What?” Sakura asked into the phone with a hint of doubt.

“Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, and I are getting the band back together!” Naruto cried out in excitement. There was a pause and then a heavy silence before Naruto suddenly had the instinctual intuition to pull the phone from his ear.

“YES! FUCK YEAH! YES YES YES!” Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs as Naruto heard her jumping up and down where ever she was.

“So, you think you'd want to join up?” Naruto asked rhetorically. “I mean, if you're too busy or not interested, I can try to get someone else to take up-”

“Shut your fucking mouth right there Uzumaki! Where are you guys meeting up? When? I'll be right over immediately!”

“I don't know about where or when, I'm just trying to see who all is available,” Naruto confessed. “But look, Kiba thinks we should keep the group small for now so we're going back to basics. Kiba and I switching it up on lead guitar and vocals, Shikamaru on bass, Choji on drums, and of course we need the best band manager in the world.”

“Got it. Besides, if we mention it to anyone else, I doubt we'd get much of a answer anyway. They all did quit for pretty good reasons,” Sakura mused. “I mean, Ino's nursing career butts heads with her part time modeling all the time, and Tenten, Lee, and Neji are still trying to get their dojo off the ground.”

“Not to mention Hinata's always been more in love with her ballet than her guitar,” Naruto nodded into the phone.

“She didn't really like the guitar at all, actually, she just got into it because she had a huge crush on you,” Sakura added.

“So, yeah, all that aside, we're starting over. You, me, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji.”

“Love it! I'll be right over, you're at Iruka's right? See you in ten!” Sakura said before she ended the call.

“Yeah! WAIT! NO! Sakura I'm not dressed! Sakura? SAKURA, YOU HUNG UP ON ME!” Naruto cried out, still yelling into the phone as he got dressed, disregarding the fact that Sakura hanging up meant he was talking to no one.

He didn't mind too much, he was getting his band back together, even if it was just the five of them. Things were going to start looking up from here on, he swore it!

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As for the lyrics, Yes I'm using the opening 'GO' and parts of 'GO Parody'. For those of you unfamiliar with the Parody, it has sense been lost to the depths of Time but it was infamous for a while when Naruto was REALLY BIG. You know, the first time around. The boys are only kicking around lyrics in the flash back but I have actually written their 'offical' song. More on that in a future chapter.  
> For those wanting the lyrics to the 'GO Parody' it went:
> 
> We are fighting dreamers! Kicking ass and eating ramen.  
> Fighting Dreamers! We pwn noobs with our Ninjustu,  
> Fighting Dreamers! We're Ninjas out to save the world  
> Oh Lee, Oh Lee, Oh Lee, Oh~! Just go my Way~
> 
> Right Here, Right Now! We think this is the best show ever!  
> Right Here, Right Now! So Grab your Headband and catch the fever!  
> Right Here, Right Now! We think this is the best show ever!  
> Right Here, Right Now~
> 
> Here in Konoha, We raise only the best Shinobi.  
> We feed them Take out 'til they grow up big and strong.  
> The they all learn how, to kick you in the face and,  
> throw Chinese stars at the bad guys and stuff!  
> Kakashi-Sensei is always reading his porn, but we still think he's the best teacher EVER! (yeah!)  
> Though we've never seen what his face really looks like, his fans still think he's hot!
> 
> [Chorus]  
> Naruto is just your average kid possessed by a demon,  
> He squats so rotten when he passes gas during his fights!  
> Sasuke is a guy with, serious family issues,  
> He was almost cool, but he chose to suck at life!  
> Complete with Sakura (who's drooling over the emo boy) this trio is prepared to kick some tail! (Yeah!)  
> Other young ninja of Konoha all wish that they, could rock as hard as them!  
> [chorus twice more and end] 
> 
> Man that brings back memories!


	5. Brother-Zoned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiba is screwed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you read, I just need to express that I personally do not by into the 'friend-zone' mentality, but for the sake of his character, Kiba does. So if you do not agree with him, don't worry, there are other characters with a different views that you might appreciate more.

 

Chapter Five: Brother-Zoned

 

_“Alright everyone,” the teacher called to the class, “I'm going to assign you a partner and tell you about your project.”_

_“What? Come on Mr. Ebisu, what's this about_ assigned _partners?” Naruto cried out in injustice._

_“YOU! Mr. Uzumaki, tend to distract Mr. Inuzuka and in turn neither of you get any actual work done!”_

_“Yeah, Naruto, you're such a distraction,” Sakura sneered from the seat next to him._

_“And_ you _Ms. Haruno, are always talking with Ms. Yamanaka and then get the assignment done hastily before it's due, allowing Ms. Yamanaka to cheat off you without her having ever done any of the work!” Mr. Ebisu got on Sakura's case, causing the girl to blush and look sheepishly at her desk and scratch the back of her head. “That is why I'm changing up the pairs and assigning you your new partners Now then; Sakura Haruno, your new partner is Naruto Uzumaki.”_

 _“WHAT! Now_ I'll _be the one who is getting distracted because of Naruto!” Sakura whined, but she was ignored as Mr. Ebisu continued his list._

_“Ino Yamanaka, you're with Shikamaru Nara. Choji Akimichi, you're now with Shino Aburame. Finally, Hinata Hyuuga, you're new partner is Kiba Inuzuka.” After he finished with his pairings, Mr. Ebisu waited patiently for them to get into their now assigned groups. Hinata was frozen to her seat, her heart breaking as she watched Naruto enthusiastically scoot his desk closer to Sakura's. He looked so happy to be paired with his crush, every one knew he like her after all, and watching it made Hinata want to cry a bit. It didn't help that Sakura, though nice to Hinata personally, was always so mean to Naruto that it sometimes made the normally passive girl want to slap her friend._

_“Hey, Hinata, looks like we're buddies today!” Kiba called as he sat in Shino's now empty desk and scooted it closer to Hinata's._

_“Oh, uh, yes, I suppose so,” Hinata replied as she was snapped out of her thoughts. She briefly wondered what it was going to be like working with Kiba, she normally worked with Shino, mainly because they were the only two in the whole class that didn't have their best friend to partner up with. They got along and worked well together so it wasn't like they were missing out on anything._

_“So, who were you staring at just now?” Kiba asked, looking over to where Hinata had been staring, he then grew a wolfish smirk. “Oh,_ I _see.”_

_“N-no one! I wasn't looking at anyone!” Hinata tried to cover up, she could feel her face beginning to burn._

_“N-no one or N-Naruto?” Kiba teased. The burning in her face became scorching and Kiba started to laugh. “Don't worry, Hinata, you're 'secret' is safe with me. You're not the only one with an unrequited love in the class if you haven't noticed.”_

_Hinata understood what Kiba was talking about at once and looked back over to where Naruto was leaning with his chin in his hands to stare at Sakura lovingly as the girl growled at him to stop staring at her like a creep and get to work. Hinata actually found it in her to chuckle._

_“I suppose you're right,” Hinata sighed, “I just, don't think he'd ever like me that way, and it's only a matter of time before Sakura decides she likes him in return after all.”_

_“I don't know,” Kiba stretched his last word, “There's someone who might get noticed before then, I wouldn't sell yourself short.” This confused Hinata and she looked back to Kiba._

_“What do you mean?”_

_“Well, Naruto likes Sakura now, but even he has to realize that his persistence has long since put him in not only the 'friend-zone' but he's now officially in the 'annoying brother' zone. If Sakura ever does stop being mean to him long enough to see Naruto's better qualities, she's more likely to feel like his big sister than his girlfriend,” Kiba explained. “You on the other hand, if you just, I don't know,_ talked _to the guy, maybe, just, you know,_ maybe _he'd actually_ see _you.”_

_“I,” Hinata blushed and stuttered and scratched at the desk's top with her thumbnail, “I wouldn't even know what to say.”_

_“You know what? I've got it!” Kiba exclaimed and looked at Hinata seriously as he leaned in. “Now, I'll give you word for word what you should say to him to get him to talk to you. If you say this, he'll carry the whole damn conversation himself and you won't really have to say anything!”_

_“R-really? What is it?” Hinata asked, she could feel herself getting excited. What magical phrase could Kiba have in mind to make such a wonderful thing happen?_

_“Get a pencil and paper out to take this down, okay? Ready, remember, you're going to have to study this until you've got it down. Don't want to be going up to him with a note card, that'd be weird. Ready now?”_

_“Yes!” Hinata had her pencil at the ready and a determined look in her eye as she prepared to take down all Kiba said next._

“ _Alright, here goes.” Kiba took a breath and look Hinata in the eye, Hinata's grip on her pencil tightened and her heart pounded. “Hi.”_

_There was a moment of silence and Hinata felt her heart stop. Kiba was still looking in her eye with seriousness, but he wasn't saying anything else._

_“What?” Hinata demanded._

_“'Hi'. That's what you need to say to him. Come on girl, I don't see you writing anything down!” Kiba's act was starting to crack as he started to smirk. Hinata felt her cheeks flare and she did something so out of character for her that everyone in the room had to stop and look at her worriedly. She shot up in her seat, hit Kiba in the head with her flimsy spiral notebook and called him a jerk in a very loud, very authoritative voice unlike her normal tone._

_“Jeeze, Kiba! What are you doing to poor Hinata over there?” Naruto called out to his best friend._

_“Nothing! I swear!” Kiba called back, “Get back your own work!”_

_“Indeed, Mr. Uzumaki, eyes to your paper! Ms. Hyuuga, as this is a first time offense I will over look this matter, but another outburst like that and I will be forced to call your father!”_

_“S-sorry, Mr. Ebisu.” Hinata sank back into her chair, face red and tears in the corner of her eyes._

_It took a couple of beats before Kiba sighed and leaned back toward Hinata. “I was being serious, you know. Naruto isn't complicated. Just go up to him and say 'hi' and he'll start talking non-stop. Just nod every now and then and say 'uh-hu' when ever he pauses for a breath.”_

_Hinata stared at her paper and bit her lip. She looked back up to the love of her life, who was casting worried glances in her direction, prompting her to blush and quickly look away. Was that really all she had to do? Just say 'hi'?_

_“I, I guess it couldn't hurt to try. It's just a simple greeting, right?” Hinata encouraged herself alongside Kiba._

_“Yeah! That's the spirit! Now what do you say we get an 'A' on this assignment?”_

 

_***_

 

Kiba didn't know why he was doing this. If he really felt like lying to himself, he'd say that it was because she was once part of the band and would want to know. But if that was true, then he'd be getting a hold of all the others as well. He wasn't. He was only calling Hinata. And he wanted desperately to lie and say he didn't know why.

“Hello? Kiba?” Man, her voice was nothing like it was when they were kids. It was stronger, more confident. Kiba supposed that when you're in a near ten year long relationship with someone like Naruto, you were bound to grow a steel backbone, no matter how passive you were before.

“Hey, H-Hinata, um, how are you?” Kiba asked in to the receiver. Why was he so nervous? He's known Hinata almost his whole life! She was like a little sister to him! Except, not really because- never mind!

“I'm good Kiba, but you kinda called at a bad time. Practice is about to start and everyone's getting lined up.”

“That's right, I forgot you had ballet practice in the mornings.” Kiba hit his forehead with his palm as he remembered Hinata's schedule. “I just, I figured I'd tell you, um, Naruto just called.” Opps.

“Naruto? Is he okay? What did he say? Was it about me? Sorry, never mind that last one, that was juvenile.”

“Jeeze, Hinata, over him much?” Kiba joked, ignoring the stabbing pain in his gut. Of course Hinata wasn't over Naruto, he was the one who broke off the engagement, not Hinata.

“Oh, uh, of course I am. I just worry is all.” And now Hinata was sounding like her old self again.

“Well, to be honest, a bit of worry with Naruto is warranted-,” Kiba started to joke.

“What? What happened? Is he okay?” Hinata jumped back into it. Good 'Ol Dependable Hinata.

“Nothing happened, he just got fired is all-,”

“Fired? Does he need money? Is he having trouble finding a new job?”

“Hinata, I love you and all, but you need to calm down,” Kiba called over the phone, “He's your 'ex' now, you can't fix his problems for him anymore.”

Hinata sighed heavily into the phone and cleared her throat, “You're right. I'm sorry, Kiba. It's just, it wasn't a bad break up. I still care about Naruto and we agreed to stay friends. I guess a part of me can't just stop being the loving fiance like it should.”

“I know. And we both know if the table was turned, Naruto would be pretty much the same.” Kiba and Hinata could easily agree on that. It wasn't like they just stopped loving each other, after all. The spark just didn't last. “That's not why I'm calling.”

Clearing his throat, Kiba got back to the proper story. “Naruto called this morning and he wanted to start the band back up. It's just going to be a small thing, really. Me, him, Shikamaru, and Choji, that's it.”

“Oh, I see, that's good. You guys did love that band.” Hinata was smiling as she spoke, Kiba could hear it.

“Yeah, and I just kind of figured I'd let you know.” There was another pause and Kiba realized just how stupid the whole thing was. Why did he really call her again? Oh, right, he was pretending he didn't know that answer.

Finally Hinata sighed and started to speak. “Kiba, I really do appreciate what you're doing, but you know it's unnecessary.”

“Huh?” Kiba was now confused, why did she think he called her?

“I know the break up is still relatively fresh and it's hard to accept, but I don't really need a day to day up date on Naruto anymore. You were right, he's my 'ex'. As good of friends as we are and will remain to be, I think the best way for me to get fully over it is to put a little distance between myself and him. Thank you for looking out for me though, you really are a great friend.” Kiba felt the stabbing pain in his gut twist and burn. 'Great Friend'. He remembered having said that Naruto was so far in the 'friend-zone' that he was in the 'Brother-zone', truth was, Kiba was too. Problem with Kiba though, was that he didn't know that he didn't want to be in the 'brother-zone' until it was way to late. Girls don't look at guys they see as brothers and think about dating them. Kiba was screwed the moment he looked at Hinata and realized he didn't want her in his 'sister-zone' after all.

“Okay, I just, as long as you're okay. But I'm still going to keep you up to date. You know, because of me,” Kiba 'joked'.

Hinata giggled. “Okay, you keep me up to date on how things are for you. I've got to go now, I'm getting dirty looks. Bye Kiba!”

“Bye, Hinata. Love you,” Kiba said into the phone.

“Love you, too,” Hinata said back before the dial tone met him. It really kinda sucked that he could say those words and have them said back, but it's still not saying what he wanted to say. He really was screwed.

 


	6. Mother Dear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke just wants to sleep in and forget about last night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, I'm slowing down a bit. Sorry guys. I'll work harder.

 

Chatper Six: Mother Dear

 

_“Sasuke!” Mikoto Uchiha had been calling for her youngest for half an hour now. She wasn't too worried, she knew he was in the house somewhere. He was just hiding from her. It wasn't much of a mystery why, she was a parent. Just earlier that morning Fugaku had spent a good five minutes dedicated to finally paying attention to the younger of his two sons. That time was spent yelling at the poor boy whom wasn't paying attention to where he was playing and broke something particularly precious; Fugaku's pride. The boy had bumped into his father while the man was walking down the hall and spilled his father's tea on his night shirt._

_“Sasuke, Dear, please come out.” Mikoto had tried to come to her youngest's rescue when she finally caught onto what was happening, but by the time she had walked up, teary eyed Sasuke took one look at her and bolted. If the ever refined woman was capable of anything close to the emotion 'pissed', this was about it. Fugaku visibly flinched at the look his wife was sending him, knowing full well that he fucked up. Mikoto gave her husband a cursory, though deadly, 'we'll talk later' and immediately went in search of her baby boy._

_She was about to call out again until she heard a small sniffle. Sighing to herself, Mikoto walked over to the hall closet and slowly opened the door. Sitting as far back as he could get himself in the closet, was her little seven year old child. He was curled up on himself and his face was blotchy with tear and snot streaks running down from each orifice._

_“Oh, Sasuke, Sweety,” Mikoto coo'd at her son and knelt down by the door frame. She didn't want him to feel too trapped, of course. “Come here.”_

_Sasuke was hesitant, but slowly inched himself to his mother where the woman wrapped her arms protectively around him. She held him close for a moment as he sobbed a bit more into her shoulder. She wanted to just pick him up and cradle him like when he was a baby, but she knew that those days were long gone. He needed space to grow, and mother-henning him would only serve to cripple him in life._

_“Is Dad still mad at me?” Sasuke asked between his hiccups._

_“No, Sasuke, he's calmed down now,” Mikoto assured him._

_“He was so mean,” Sasuke tucked his face in his mother's arm and sniffed again._

_“People tend to get mean when they're upset,” Mikoto explained. “You're father was probably just worried that you might have made him spill his hot tea on you. He wouldn't want you to get burned.”_

_“Really?” Sasuke looked up at her with a hopeful look._

_“Really, you know your father loves you, he just shows it in the wrong way sometimes.”_

_“So he's not mad at me?” Sasuke sniffled one last time and Mikoto began to use her apron to wipe of her son's face._

_“No, Sasuke. Now, why don't you go find your brother and have him take you to the park?” Mikoto suggested. Itachi always cheered Sasuke up. Shame he didn't always have time to spend with his little brother much anymore. The elder of the two really was twelve going on twenty some days._

_“Okay! Love you, Mommy!” Sasuke declared as he gave his mother a big hug before shooting back down the hallway toward his big brother's room. Mikoto smiled after him before she got ready for her 'talk' with Fugaku. She hoped she wasn't going to have to spend her whole life playing peace keeper between her husband and her youngest._

 

_***_

 

The bedroom was dark and warm. It was nothing in comparison to how dark and warm it was underneath his comforter, though. His face was mashed against his pillow and the A/C worked to keep the temperature from getting too stifling with the summer heat. It was a perfect Saturday morning, and Sasuke had no intention of leaving the safety of his covers for anything short of a dying loved one. Then again, that wasn't his choice for much longer.

Without so much as a knock, Sasuke's bedroom door opened and someone barged in. Sasuke didn't have it in him to really care. If they were there to assassinate him, this was a good way to go. But then his intruder did something so inhumane and devastating, no sane human could have stomached the torture. They ripped open his thick drapes, allowing the sun to blast it's way straight into Sasuke's face.

“No! Stop!” Sasuke cried, yanking his blanket over his head, not as comfortable, but preferable to the offending light that was attempting to blind him.

“Sasuke, Sweety, it's ten, you should have been up by now,” the familiar voice chided.

“It's my day off,” Sasuke growled into his pillow. Seriously, why did he need to be up and about when there was nothing on his schedule for today. Did this woman have any idea how precious and rare such and occurrence was? His argument was ignored, however, in favor of having his sheets torn from his body. That was also the moment he remembered that he hadn't worn anything to bed.

“Mom!” Sasuke shrieked as he quickly maneuvered his pillow to cover himself.

“Oh, please, nothing I haven't had to clean before,” Mikoto chided as she left the room, blankets in hand. “I'll be making breakfast while you get dressed.”

“I moved out to avoid situations like this!” Sasuke called after her.

“You can't move out of being my son!” Mikoto had called back as she closed his door, ending their interaction.

Initial embarrassment over, Sasuke made his way to his closet to pull together the laziest outfit he could. It was a bit annoying to see the most he could manage was still pretty professional as he didn't own any pair of pants that weren't slacks of one level of class or another. Then again, he never had many days where he could get away with wearing jeans either, so buying a pair would just be a waste. But, hell, what was being stupidly rich if not to waste money every now and again.

When he was sufficiently clothed, the youngest Uchiha made his way to the kitchen where he could easily smell smoke and char. He was alarmed for all of a moment until he peaked in to see his mother trying to make herself feel comfortable at his stove.

“What are you doing?” Sasuke asked as he entered the kitchen.

“I'm making breakfast,” Mikoto replied easily.

“You're burning breakfast,” Sasuke corrected.

“It's not burnt, see, the eggs are still white and and yolk is still yellow,-”

“And the bacon is black.”

“It's not black, it's brown, which means it's done.”

“Then why is it still on the stove?”

“I turned off that burner, I'll move it when the eggs are done.”

“Eggs cook faster than bacon, Mom.”

“. . . I think I turned off the wrong burner, . . .”

“I'll have a bowl of cereal then.” Sasuke watched as his mother sighed, turned off the last burner, and pulled out the box of Phoenix Flower Puffs for her son. He rested his chin in his hand as he considered his next question.

“Why the sudden need to be domestic?” Mikoto set the milk, cereal, and a bowl at the table before she even seemed to consider answering Sasuke.

“You know, I use to be really good at this being a house wife thing,” she started. “I made breakfast for my family, a boxed lunch for my thirteen year old to take to school, a sack lunch for my husband to take to work, and watched over my seven year old as he played, all while I did the house chores. Save, of course, taking out the trash which Itachi did upon returning home, and mowing the lawn that Fugaku prioritized once a week. I was really good at being a stay-at-home mom.”

Sasuke listened to his mother as he poured himself his breakfast, realizing a little late that he didn't have a spoon. He didn't want to interrupt his mother by getting up to grab one, however, and sat in silence as his cereal soaked. By the end of his mother's rambling, he couldn't help but frown.

“And you think that because you can't cook a proper breakfast anymore you're now failing as a mother?” Sasuke really hoped she was going to correct him and say the actual problem she was having, he was never really good at heart to hearts. This was Itachi's territory, why was his mother coming to him with this?

“I used to be good at more than just cooking and cleaning,” Mikoto pointed out. “I used to sew all the patches in your cloths and stuffed animals. I was the all knowing one when it came to lost items. I could easily solve all my boys' problems from Fugaku's crooked tie, to Itachi's broken desk.”

“Mom, what's the matter?” Sasuke was now wanting to get to the point.

Mikoto sighed again and looked at her baby boy. All grown up at twenty-one. “I'm not good at any of that stuff anymore. I haven't been since, well, since _she_ came into our lives.”

 _Ahhhh!_ THAT'S _the issue she's having!_ Sasuke thought and smiled to himself. “Maid troubles again?”

“Fugaku didn't know where his house slippers where. That's nothing new,” Mikoto was now full on venting, “But what does he do when he needs help finding them? ' **Yusa! Where are my house slippers?** ' And if he sees me while he's hungry? **'Mikoto-Dear, where's Yusa?'** It's sickening!”

“Well, she's the maid, it's kind of her job to know where his items are and to feed him when hungry. You too, you know,” Sasuke pointed out.

“I know, it's just, we were so happy before we had all this money, why do we need it now?” Mikoto whined and put her chin in her hand like her son across from her. Sasuke ended up dropping his hand and sitting up straight with an inquisitive expression.

“We've been wealthy for the past thirteen years,” Sasuke pointed out. “Why are you suddenly against it now?” Mikoto looked down at the table while she scratched the surface with a fingernail.

“It's not just now, I've never really been happy with a maid.”

“Mother, what's the real problem?”

Mikoto looked back at her son with a sorrowful expression and asked a question of her own. “How was dinner with your father?”

It was Sasuke's turn to stare at the table's surface in contemplation. He knew full well that his mother didn't like it when her boys weren't happy with their father. But what was he suppose to do when his father seemed to be going out of his way to be an unlikable person?

“He, uh, he didn't show,” Sasuke admitted.

“So I've heard,” Mikoto confessed and went back to looking at the table. “Madara mentioned it earlier this morning.” That got a rise from the boy.

“He, _what_?” Sasuke felt his face redden in rage. “It was none of his business, he has no right-”

“Sasuke, it's your Great Uncle Madara, he has more right and privilege than anyone,” Mikoto reminded her son. “He was upset on your behalf and came by for breakfast to talk about it with your father.”

“I'd rather he had come by to talk about it with me,” Sasuke muttered.

“Your father was apologetic, you know,” Mikoto informed Sasuke as she reached across the table for one of his hands. He let her take it, even if he wanted to pull away. She always held him or his hand when she made excuses for his father. “He had asked Yusa to remind him of it, but I had sent her off on a needless errand just to have the house alone with my husband. I should have reminded him in her place. It was my fault, Sasuke. Please don't be mad at your father.”

Damn. Of all the excuses that his mother ever made for his father's behavior, it was always when she took the blame on herself that hurt the most. Sasuke ground his teeth together and thought back to just fifteen minutes ago when he was in his nice warm bed. If his mother really loved him and wanted him to get over being ditched by his own father, she should have just left him the hell alone. The more wicked part of him wanted to tell her just that and then go back to bed. Sasuke would never speak that way to his mother, though. He never could. The one time Itachi did, Sasuke damn near killed him for it. Given it was an accident, but still, he set out to hurt Itachi on her behalf and his elder brother nearly went to the hospital. No, he knew he lost the moment Mikoto reached over the table to him.

“It's fine, Mother. Uncle Tobi met me anyway and we had a good meal. It gave me a chance to bond with my mentor and I appreciate that. Don't worry, I'm not upset.” Because lying to his mother was always better than to let her know how he really felt.

Mikoto smiled gratefully at her son and patted him on the hand before letting it go. Suddenly, Sasuke had no qualm with getting up from the table to grab a spoon. Though he did feel a little bad when Mikoto looked stricken with herself for having forgotten it in the first place. She shook her head and readied up the next bit of conversation.

“So, since your father missed last night,” Mikoto started up her new plans and Sasuke had to shove a large spoon full of cereal to keep from stopping her, “I was thinking the three of us go out for lunch together?” Sasuke was now regretting the large spoonful as he was trying desperately not to choke on the small pieces. When he managed to empty his mouth he looked at his mother incredulously.

“Lunch?” He asked. Mikoto nodded and smiled as if her happiness would seep into Sasuke's bitter callousness. “Won't father be busy?”

“I've already talked to Great Uncle Madara and he's cleared Fugaku until the evening.” Great, so now that the head of the family was sticking his nose in it Sasuke couldn't even dare consider skipping out. It wasn't that Sasuke wanted revenge for last night, it was just that whenever the family went out of their way to force his father's attention on him, it was never the nice kind of attention. His father always ended up treating the whole ordeal as if Sasuke were some foreign ambassador that spoke English as a second language. Overly polite and extremely impersonal. Now he was wondering why he even felt the need to have his uncle involved last night!

A mere second of thought reminded him that Chi from the Daily Sound was right behind him, and that the repercussions of the blotched dinner would have been worse if she actually had a story to publish. And then there was Son-of-Apollo, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke wasn't too sure if he'd have had the presence of mind not to chase down that blonde little nobody that moment if it wasn't for his uncle to distract him.

Either way, he was now facing a _wonderful_ lunch date with both of his parents. One of which was only there to make sure the other one even showed up. He also knew that when it was over he was going to have to answer a shit ton of questions about the affair by his two over protective, nosy uncles and his even more over protective, nosy brother! None of which would allow him to just drop the matter completely.

Maybe he could convince his Uncle Madara to transfer him over to their Suna branch? He'd have to work out a convincing as shit power point. Good thing he's had years of practice.

 


End file.
